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Psalm 46
Proper 29C
Many of us are old enough to remember that whatever preachers around the world and particularly in the United States had planned to preach on for Sunday September 16, 2001, all that changed after that fateful Tuesday now referred to by the shorthand of 9/11. And so very many of us who preach switched to…
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Proper 29C
Commentary: This text thrives on a couple of significant contrasts: negligence vs. diligence and shepherd vs. king. Negligence and Diligence The first image this text offers us is of a shepherd who has become derelict in his responsibilities. Some texts translate the Hebrew to say he destroyed the flock. Robert Alter is content with a…
Genesis 9:8-17: Grief and Grace – Lent 1B
As “Bible Stories” go, the story about Noah’s Ark has few peers. Children love this story. Kids enjoy singing all those “fun” songs about the arky-arky. They have a good time playing with the various toys and puzzles that tie in with Noah’s ark. My in-laws, for instance, once had a lovely ark made out…
Isaiah 65:17-25
Proper 28C
Heaven is a Place on Earth A lot of ink has been spilled in scholarly spaces debating the nature of the New Jerusalem that Isaiah celebrates here in this passage. Some say the New Jerusalem will be an eternal heavenly reality after this earth is destroyed, first by human hands until, finally, (as though mercifully)…
Psalm 98
Proper 28C
I come from an ecclesiastical tradition that for a long time shunned the singing of anything but settings of the 150 psalms in worship. Despite a burst of hymnody in the post-Reformation church world—think of names like Isaac Watt or the Wesleys—singing any text that was not straight out of the Psalter was verboten. Ironically…
Psalm 17:1-9
Proper 27C
If you bring last week’s psalm lection of Psalm 32 and place it next to Psalm 17, you find a curious contrast. In Psalm 32 the psalmist wrestles with unconfessed sin and how his not confessing it led to no small measure of torment for his spirit but even for his body. Finally he does…
Haggai 2:1-9
Proper 27C
Names and Dates Haggai is a short book, wedged between Zephaniah and Zechariah, toward the end of the 12 books of the Minor Prophets. With just three chapters, you might say that Haggai is more minor than most! Using the dating scattered through the book like a modern-day time stamp, we learn that Haggai only…
Isaiah 1:10-18
Proper 26C
Commentary: As Worship Sourcebook: While the point Isaiah is making is that Israel’s worship is unacceptable to God because it does not match their behavior toward the most vulnerable in society, this text is also — kind of accidentally — a primer on the central aspects of worship among the faithful in Jerusalem. We can…
Psalm 32:1-7
Proper 26C
Psalm 32 has multiple voices. In this commentary I will comment on the entire Psalm despite the RCL’s cutting it off at verse 7. But the four remaining verses are important to get the upshot and meaning of the entire poem. The psalm begins with the first voice with a double beatitude pronounced by an…
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Proper 25C
Dialoguing with God This text—not just the parts chosen by our Lectionary editors but the whole chapter—offers a beautiful example of God and God’s people in relationship, dialoguing and talking out their differences. In this case (and, to be honest, most cases), their difference of opinion shows up over sin, over human failure to keep…
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